New Season of ‘Portlandia’ Coming in January; Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein Will Direct Episodes for the First Time

Fred Armisen revealed in an interview today with Decider that he and Carrie Brownstein will both direct episodes for the upcoming season of IFC’s Portlandia — the directorial debuts for both — and that Season 7 of the popular sketch series will premiere in January.

Credit NBC Late Night host Seth Meyers for the scoop. After Armisen said in the interview that Portlandia is returning in January, Meyers asked if he was directing an episode. “I am directing the season finale, yeah,” Armisen said.

The news came near the end of the interview with Armisen, Meyers and Bill Hader to promote their parody series Documentary Now!, which has its Season 2 premiere tonight on IFC. Armisen said that Portlandia is in production on the new season right now for a premiere in January, which is the same month that the two previous seasons of Portlandia have premiered.

Steve Buscemi, who has directed three previous episodes, will direct an episode for the upcoming 10-episode season. Jonathan Krisel, who co-created Portlandia with Armisen and Brownstein and has directed the bulk of the show’s episodes during its six-season run, will presumably again direct several episodes.

Armisen is having a busy 2016. Along with Documentary Now! that he co-stars and produces along with his former SNL-ers and filming the next season of Portlandia, Armisen has recurred this year as Billy Eichner’s square, suburban brother on Hulu‘s Difficult People and as the murderous Robert Durst on Netflix‘s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Scott Porch writes about the streaming-media industry for Decider. He is also a contributing writer for Signature and The Daily Beast. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.